60 INDIAN SNAKE POISONS, 



of convulsions. But their occurrence depends, as we 

 have seen, upon the size of the animal and the amount 

 of poison injected. I have seen an extremely large 

 pariah dog so severely convulsed that it seemed probable 

 that he would die in them. At the same time, a small 

 dog may escape them altogether. It is entirely depen- 

 dent on the quantity of poison injected by the snake. 



If the convulsions occur, they generally take place in 

 from one to ten minutes after the infliction of the bite — 

 probably five minutes is about the average ; and they 

 may have any degree of severity, from violent contrac- 

 tions of nearly every muscle in the body, so that the 

 animal dies almost instantaneously, to just a few twitch- 

 ings of the muscles of the legs or other parts. As a 

 rule, they are severe ; every muscle, it seems, taking part 

 in them; the muscles of the eye-balls, even, rolling the 

 eyes about in a most striking manner. 



In this state the animal may die at once, as in Experi- 

 ment IV., or respiration may be established again, only 

 to cease shortly after, the animal remaining completely 

 paralysed in the interval ; or the animal may recover 

 consciousness, but remain paralysed, the respiration 

 gradually ceasing, as in Experiment V. ; or after the 

 convulsions he may quite recover and show no symptom 

 whatever, but a greater or less interval having occurred, 

 paralysis begins to be manifest, as in Experiment VI. 

 Even when convulsions are absent, marked twitcnings 

 of the muscles of the eye, or the neck, or the hind-legs. 



